Linux in Government: DHS Secretary Ridge Gives the Go Ahead to Linux

LAMP is at the heart of Emergency Response Network Systems and is saving lives.

A Critical DHS Application

Few of us realize that the permanent government runs the country, and
that's not necessarily our elected and appointed officials. Actually,
one even might say that the permanent government doesn't do that work, at least sometimes
not efficiently. The permanent government consists of the long-term
civil servants who operate in fiefdoms. When someone gets the blame
for the failure of a department, its usually an elected official whose
inheritance is his or her agency.

The Dallas FBI worked to put ERN into place. Here's a part of the
permanent government that does work and works for the people. Now, they
want to share this incredible software solution with the rest of the
nation. Will they succeed?

Currently, the Dallas FBI has the ERN system. It has run for three years
and uses Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Look elsewhere, and the remainder
of the country lacks such a critical application. When you want to report
an incident or a suspicious activity, if it doesn't make it to the ERN
system, it falls into a hole.

ERN has a database of strategic contacts that includes local, national and
international individuals in both public and private sectors. The dynamic
alert and notification system supports broadcast and targeted distribution
of information, such as:

10,000 voice calls per minute

30,000 simultaneous inbound hotline
calls

3,000 simultaneous faxes

5,000 simultaneous e-mails

5,000 simultaneous text messages

Immediate Web site changes.

And additional notification technology currently is being added quarterly.

ERN provides dynamic and unobstructed information sharing between program
partners at every level of government and the private sector. This
system even alerts providers to the location of supplies and equipment
so offices quickly can assign those critical assets in case of a crisis. Those
assets include personnel, equipment and vehicles available in daily-use
or crisis-use situations. In other words, ERN can provide immediate
dispatch of the country's assets to disaster areas.

Why wouldn't every citizen in the US and across the globe want this
system active and operational today?

Figure 1. Secretary Ridge and Jo Balderas

Secretary Ridge Lets the Cat Out of the Bag

On June 23, 2004, when Secretary Tom Ridge gave a speech in Dallas
honoring the creators of ERN and their founder Jo Banderas,
he
said:

A girl grew up in Chicago, the youngest child in a family with twelve
children. Her cousins and uncles and godparents worked the sweaty, hard
jobs of Chicago cops and firefighters, and two of her brothers went away
to Vietnam with the Marine Corps. She grew up, married and stayed home
to raise three kids of her own. Then she taught herself computers and
the technology necessary to use them. Then she started her own company
with her son--a company that had software that, among other things,
helped talent agencies conduct talent searches.

And this software, this technology with a robust search capability,
was the type of technology that the FBI desperately needed after
September 11th. On September 12, it took 2 and 1/2 hours to reach 540
local law enforcement organizations in Dallas to stand up multi-agency
command posts. We needed a better, faster tool to disseminate and collect
information, and connect people. When Art Fierro, Special Agent with the
Dallas FBI, called this woman, she took down all the FBI's requirements
and redeployed her existing technology to fulfill our country's needs.

The FBI told her that they could not pay her very much money. She said
not to worry about the money, the country faced a national emergency and
she would do whatever it took to help. Sacrifice on behalf of our country
often requires us to forfeit self interest and private goals for the sake
of the common interest and public good. For her sacrifice and patriotism,
today I'd like to recognize and thank Jo Balderas. I'd also like to
recognize Art Fierro for his tireless efforts to help develop this great
tool that the private sector can use to communicate with each other and
with the Department.

Secretary Ridge went on to describe ERN, which Jo Baldera's company
started and which has become part of Homeland Security's information sharing
initiative:

One of these solutions is the Homeland Security Information Network
Critical Infrastructure Pilot Program (HSIN-CI). A program forged by
the strong partnership not only between the FBI and the Department of
Homeland Security, but also with the private sector, our local leaders,
law enforcement and first responders.

It is a cross-agency, cross-sector, cross-discipline, public and private
information-sharing and alert notification system. And it is locally
governed and administered by knowledgeable, respected domain experts and
decision makers from the private and public sectors.... HSIN-CI will
provide unobstructed information sharing to the right people--those
who need to know and those who need to act.

And it will provide it quickly, with the capability to make 10,000 calls
per minute and send 3,000 faxes simultaneously. Notifications can also
be sent out by e-mail and text messaging.

In a Department of Homeland Security
Press
Release, we learn even more:

The [ERN] HSIN-CI pilot program, modeled after the FBI Dallas Emergency
Response Network expands the reach of the Department's Homeland Security
Information Network (HSIN) initiative--a counterterrorism communications
tool that connects 50 states, five territories, Washington, DC, and 50
major urban areass to strengthen the exchange of threat information--to
critical infrastructure owners and operators in a variety of industries
and locations, first responders and local officials. As part of the
HSIN-CI pilot program, more than 25,000 members of the network will have
access to unclassified sector specific information and alert notifications
on a 24/7 basis.

>>Additionally, Tom needs to stop all the silly rhetorical questions. How many of them end up with, will they do this or will they do that? I suggest he takes a journalism course at a nearby college.<<

As a fellow journalist, his writing is sound. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to use rhetoric to avoid claims of our making assertions. He also uses a formal approach, which you may not like. I would guess that he's written a number of journal style articles.

Finally, how many Linux journalists have a 20 year old book selling for $197.00 on Amazon - used? Look under S. Thomas Adelstein. I'd co-author with him anytime.

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